Daniel 2:14

answered with counsel and discretion] lit. returned counsel and discretion (or tact): lit. taste, and so figuratively of the faculty which discriminates and selects what is suitable for a given occasion. Cf. 1 Samuel 25:33, -And blessed be thy discretion" (R.V. marg.), of the tact displayed by Abigail in averting David's vengeance from Nabal; Job 12:20, -and taketh away the discretionof the elders;" Proverbs 26:16 (the same phrase as here), -than seven men answering with discretion" (lit. returning discretion).

Arioch The name, in Genesis 14:1, of an ancient king of Ellasar (Larsa, in S. Babylonia); and, no doubt, borrowed thence, both here and in Jdt 1:6 (where it is the name of a -king of the Elymaeans"). "The name was Sumerian and not used at that period [Nebuchadnezzar's] of Babylonian history" (Sayce, in Hastings" Dict. of the Bible, s.v.).

captain of the king's guard -Captain of the guard" is the same expression which occurs in 2 Kings 25:8 ff., Jeremiah 39:9 ff., of an officer of Nebuchadnezzar, and (with sarfor rab) in Gen. (Genesis 37:36; Genesis 39:1, al.) of an officer of Pharaoh. It is lit. -captain (or superintendent, chief) of the slaughterers" (viz. of animals [notexecutioners]): the royal butchers came in some way to form the royal body-guard (cf. W. R. Smith, OTJC[206][207], p. 262 f.). The use of the same term in reference to two such different countries as Egypt and Babylon, shews that, though it happens only to be applied to foreigners, it was really a native Hebrew title.

[206] TJC.W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.

[207] W. Robertson Smith, The Old Testament in the Jewish Church, ed. 2, 1892.